![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/migrants-trying-to-reach-the-uk-cross-the-alps-on-foot/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/131293731_adj-photo21copycopy.jpg&description=Image caption, Young men from Africa and the Middle East are making the journey through Europe on foot In a corner of the Italian Alps, a queue of Sudanese and Afghans are swapping their sandals for hiking boots and replacing flip-flops with sturdy trainers, preparing, they hope, for their trek to freedom. They are today's arrivals - around 150 - at a makeshift camp in the picturesque town of Oulx manned by local volunteers. They give out donated coats to the migrants to help them survive the mountain temperatures on the arduous journey ahead. For even here, having reached Italy from across Africa and the Middle East, these groups of mostly young men want to go on to France and beyond. More than 130,000 migrants have entered Italy this year - almost double the same period in 2021, following a surge of arrivals by boat to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. Numbers travelling north to the border with France have doubled in the past few months. But France's authorities are detaining and pushing back undocumented migrants, having reintroduced controls on its border with Italy, suspending parts of the Schengen free movement regulations. The European Court of Justice recently ruled that the pushbacks breach EU law and that migrants detained should be subject to an official return decision, adding that forced removal should only be "a last resort." Image caption, Migrants don warm clothes and boots for the dangerous trek over the Alps One of those trying to make the journey to France is Omar, from Nigeria, who spent months in Libya before paying smugglers the equivalent of $800 (£660) to make the perilous crossing across the Mediterranean to Lampedusa. From there, he was moved to two camps elsewhere in Italy, before managing, he says, to get out and walk to the French border. Now his aim is to reach the UK. "I just want to have a good life and study there," he tells me, his foot bandaged from an injury at sea. I ask whether he's seen pictures or heard stories of eco){kind=link}
In a corner of the Italian Alps, a queue of Sudanese and Afghans are swapping their sandals for hiking boots and replacing flip-flops with sturdy trainers, preparing, they hope, for their trek to freedom.
They are today’s arrivals – around 150 – at a makeshift camp in the picturesque town of Oulx manned by local volunteers. They give out donated coats to the migrants to help them survive the mountain temperatures on the arduous journey ahead.
For even here, having reached Italy from across Africa and the Middle East, these groups of mostly young men want to go on to France and beyond. More than 130,000 migrants have entered Italy this year – almost double the same period in 2021, following a surge of arrivals by boat to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
Numbers travelling north to the border with France have doubled in the past few months. But France’s authorities are detaining and pushing back undocumented migrants, having reintroduced controls on its border with Italy, suspending parts of the Schengen free movement regulations.
The European Court of Justice recently ruled that the pushbacks breach EU law and that migrants detained should be subject to an official return decision, adding that forced removal should only be “a last resort.”